Quiñones, I. 1 , Duñabeitia, J. A. 1 & Carreiras, M. 1, 2
1 Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Mikeletegui 69, 2°, 20009 Donostia-San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, Spain
2 IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Alameda Urquijo, 36-5, 48011 Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain
Reading is a learnt skill that entails structural and functional brain changes. Recent research has demonstrated that these changes are mainly due to a progressive specialization of a left inferior occipito-temporal region becoming increasingly responsive to visual words. This region, a critical node of the reading circuitry, has been suggested to develop from a partial recycling of a cortical territory evolved for object and face recognition. Our main goal is to explore the plausibility of the recycling hypothesis in a context where faces and words are presented together competing for the same resources. We combine fMRI and probabilistic tractography information to explore possible functional and anatomical interconnectivity between VWFA and FFA. Critically, we found a clear-cut difference in the response activation of these two regions when comparing responses to the stimuli presented in isolation and stimuli presented simultaneously. Anatomical and functional connections between these two regions were also explored, demonstrating a close structural and functional link between these two critical regions. These results demonstrate the existence of a tight relationship between these two well-differentiated areas, and suggest that in spite of the immutable nature of face-selective areas, which seem to be determined by phylogenetic heritage, word-responsive areas lack this invariable nature and are greatly influenced by the presence of competing visual objects that activate adjoining brain regions, thus supporting the recycling hypothesis.